{"id":58950,"date":"2020-01-18T02:15:37","date_gmt":"2020-01-18T10:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=58950"},"modified":"2020-01-21T04:57:36","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T12:57:36","slug":"black-coffee-18-jan-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id58950-black-coffee-18-jan-2020.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: Ghosts In the Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"It’s time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe<\/em> …<\/p>\n

Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance.<\/p>\n

I see another week has come and gone — so without further ado, let’s get this show on the road.<\/p>\n

The more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Italo Calvino<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fear the boom, not the bust.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Ludwig von Mises<\/strong><\/p>\n

Credits and Debits<\/strong><\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? A new survey has found that 97% of CFOs queried believe either an economic slowdown or recession<\/a> will occur before the end of 2020 — that’s up from 88% one year ago. Let’s just hope those CFOs are better at managing their company’s finances than they are at predicting recessions.<\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Maybe that CFO pessimism is because they know that the percentage of listed companies in the US that were unable to earn a profit<\/a> over the past 12 months is close to 40% — that’s the highest level since the late 1990s, outside of post-recession periods. Let’s see … what else was happening in the corporate world during the late 1990s? Oh, yeah … that’s right. Lot’s and lots of this<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n